You guys might have seen the screencast video I have uploaded to YouTube. Now I'm happy to spread the word that Aurigma Channel on YouTube is finally set up.

There is only 1 video - and it has been already viewed more than 500 times over 3 weeks. I think that's a good start. I'm very much looking forward to making more screencasts and tutorial videos. Here, I certainly need your advice. Just feel free to throw in some interesting ideas - these will be really valuable to me.

Add Multiple Image Upload Tool to your Site in Just 3 Minutes!

At idle moments, some folks (Alex and Fed) here at Aurigma have created a cool image upload control for ASP.NET - big thanks to them! I just thought that the ASP.NET control deserves much more attention than it gets :) So I recorded this short video to show how emebedding Image Uploader into your web site can be easy when using Visual Studio.

Learn more and download the free ASP.NET control at Aurigma forums.

If you don't like the quality of the YouTube video (below), you can download a HIGH QUALITY VIDEO (35MB) HERE (BOX.NET).

Some of you guys might have noticed a Google ad which pops up on the right from the search results if you type 'Aurigma Image Upload'.

Hence an explanation: VersalSoft (China) has never had, does not have and will not have affiliation with Aurigma. Not ever.

Hence a disclaimer: we have no responsibility for whatever harm VersalSoft products may cause to web site owners and end users.

Thanks for your attention and be sure to fight for your copyright! ;)

Standard vs. Pro

Aurigma Inc. announces an anniversary version of Graphics Mill for .NET, the popular SDK for the developers of image processing solutions. Version 5.0 marks a new milestone in the product life cycle: Graphics Mill is now offered in two flavors, Standard and Pro. This allows the developers to choose the optimal tool for precisely addressing the goals in an economically efficient manner. Now the developers of basic imaging solutions do not need to pay for expert Pro version functionality, having the Standard package contain all necessary imaging features. Normally, Standard version proves sufficient for such solutions as image editing web applications, image viewers, photo galleries and catalogs, etc. More demanding customers, however, would rather choose to buy the Pro version that includes all the expert features needed to develop such serious products as preprint preparation solutions, document management systems, satellite photo processing applications, etc. Graphics Mill Pro has native support for x64 platforms that allows for addressing more than 2 gigabytes of RAM per process for imaging needs.

Also the Pro version has enhanced support for multi-processor and multi-core systems, detecting the amount of CPUs/cores and accordingly optimizing imaging computations.

Other prominent Graphics Mill Pro features include support for Adobe Color Management Module and 16 bits per channel for images, real-time color space conversion, etc.

Graphics Mill code is native .NET (ASP.NET) which delivers valuable advantages for the developer.

One of the greatest improvements in version 5.0 is the introduction of Red-Eye Removal Add-on into Graphics Mill SDK. Therefore, there is no need now to purchase this add-on separately from Graphics Mill. Now the Graphics Mill SDK includes everything necessary to develop photo imaging solutions, including red-eye removal tool. Red-Eye Removal Add-on makes the entire process as easy as possible: it features a unique semi-automatic mode that only requires selecting the necessary face – and the natural eye tint is automatically restored. The process is split up into steps and features undo operation.

Other add-ons are included into Graphics Mill, depending on the package type: AVI Processor and Media Processor are available both with Graphics Mill Standard and Graphics Mill Pro, while Advanced PSD Add-on is only limited to Graphics Mill Pro.

Advanced PSD Add-on.

There is no doubt PSD format is immensely popular with artists engaged in graphic and web design. Very often a customer gets the final result (and sometimes even the mockups) in a PSD file. This allows for making minor changes without resorting to the designer expertise. However, sometimes there is a pressing need to streamline PSD file processing, inserting some custom content on-the-fly. The most typical example of such usage can be an online business card editor.

Objective: generate a business card from the person’s name and position input via a web form. Assets: business card PSD template that includes text and raster layers as well as the person name and position (and possibly a photo).

Solution: Advanced PSD Add-on reads the template and merges PSD graphics with custom personal data such as name and position (as rasterized text), personal photo, etc. The data can be input through a web form or be retrieved from a database – at developer discretion. The final image can be saved into a file for further printing.

More complex examples include discount cards, brochures and booklets with custom regional and cultural data, etc.

AVI Processor Add-on and Media Processor Add-on.

The advent of broadband connections brought video processing online. AVI Processor Add-on allows for AVI format manipulation: retrieving frames and soundtracks and saving them to files, adding frames and soundtracks from files and much more.

Providing metadata processing and multimedia format support, Media Processor Add-on makes a handy addition to AVI Processor.

Imaging Controls

To fully reveal Graphics Mill potential in web and desktop applications, a WinForms control set and an AJAX control set for ASP.NET 2.0 are included into the SDK.

WinForms controls include multilayer controls, containers for manipulating vector and raster objects, zoom and pan controls, thumbnail view control and many more.

AJAX controls for ASP.NET 2.0 are specifically intended for providing smooth online image editing experience even for slow Internet connections.

Graphics Mill is a comprehensive development tool for building imaging solutions of varying complexity. A more detailed Graphics Mill feature list is well beyond the limits of this brief article, while a complete understanding of Graphics Mill capabilities can be achieved by reading the extensive SDK documentation.

Hi everyone!

Not so long ago, I have spotted a few things that could be altered to make Aurigma Photo Editor more ready-to-use. I wonder whether anyone shares my views on this. So, here goes the list of possible changes that would probably benefit Photo Editor:

• Currently, there is a peculiarity using various effects on images: you cannot simultaneously apply multiple effects if these are in the same group. Thus, in the Effects -> Artistic group you can apply either Emboss or Posterize but not both at the same time. If each effect were put into a separate group, then you could apply as many effects as you wish. So, what do you think – do we need to have each effect in its own group, or not?
• Some sort of File Load and File Save dialogs. As of now, for a quick start, you can only edit the default image. If you want to test it with some images of your own, you have to make a few moves to feed these images to PhotoEditor. Anyway, does anyone feel like having pre-built file load & save dialogs?

So, these are just the things I noticed but I dunno whether these are really what the others want. Well, I hope I’m not alone here :) So, if you have something to say – go ahead!

A while ago I've stumbled upon an article that made an attempt to explain a very intriguing phenomenon. The experts deem this phenomenon as the gradual decline of massive social networks, FaceBook serving as a reference example. Also, the author made a little insight into the big brands being 'not cool'. You may share the author's views or not - but the article is definitely worth reading. It features beatiful metaphors and analogies and is written in a very neat and concise style.

So, here it goes, the FaceBook's Growing Problem:

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2008/03/facebooks-probl.html

We are happy to annouce the release of a brand new product - Aurigma Photo Kiosk.

It's a stylish Web 2.0 digital print order application for .NET 3.0

Photo Kiosk was build with Windows Presentation Foundation technology, which adds some great features to the GUI:

- It's automatically scaled to any screen resolution with any aspect ratio

- Captions on controls can be specified via XML

- All graphics have a clear anti-aliased look.

Apart from that, Photo Kiosk has

- On screen keyboard for touch screens

- Great imaging functions

- Convenient wizard-based order process

To learn more about other great features that Photo Kiosk has to offer, I recommend seeing the brand new Photo Kiosk web site at http://photokiosk.aurigma.com

We are glad to announce the release of a new edition of Photo Editor.

Photo Editor Standard is a more affordable version ($399) which bears the Aurigma logo. This logo presence is actually the licensing option that differs it from the Photo Editor Private Label - ($949) which was the only version of Photo Editor available until now. Photo Editor Standard bears no functionality restrictions - you only have to show Aurigma logo to all your visitors - that's all!

We hope that the new Photo Editor Edition will make the product even more attractive for those willing to feature their website with a cool online photo editing solution.

It's finally there! In the last days of year 2007, Aurigma web designers have completely revamped the appearance of our so much loved web site!

Also, some products have got their new fancy illustrations :)

I hope that our visitors will love the new style - we also did our best to improve usability. Also, the home page content is now different - it's has wizard-like structure to help our customers in finding a necessary solution. We always try to make our website a really nice place to visit.

So, how's the new looks - what do you think guys? We are always open to suggestions - that would certainly help to make aurigma.com a place to stay at ;)

PS Some things are yet being fixed - they will look much better in a couple of days :)

Christmas is coming soon and this is the time when miracles happen, you know. Though, we believe that most miracles (not all!) are made happen by people. So, we made version 4.5 of Graphics Mill for .NET happen almost on the Christmas Eve, shortly after version 4.1. You may find that the new version includes some new features:

• You can now extract and save individual blocks to Adobe Resources.
• A kind .NET Christmas Fairy Improved multi-line text support:
  • Possibility to retrieve height of the multi-line text block rectangle when it is drawn.
  • Possibility to horizontally align multi-line text to both edges (justify).

• Reader no more hangs up when trying to load JPEG file with corrupted embedded color profile.
• A horde of little Christmas elves resolved the problem with launching multiple processes which use Graphics Mill for .NET concurrently.
• A .NET Codewizard fixed the problem with memory leak when image save operation fails.
• Santa’s Scandinavian deer fixed the problem with Swedish symbols in XMP.
• The BitmapViewer AJAX Control now works correctly with UpdatePanel.
• Scrolling now works correctly in FireFox when you left-click scroll-bars of the BitmapViewer AJAX Control with active PanNavigator.
• Mouse pointers are displayed correctly when you change zoom of image loaded in the BitmapViewer AJAX Control using ZoomInNavigator and ZoomOutNavigator.
• ...a number of miscellaneous minor bug fixes as usual.

  Ok, ok, we do not have elves, fairies or wizards. Or deers – but who cares! Did not you at least once wish that a Godmother Fairy could fix a bug or add a feature merely with a swing of her magic wand? So, let’s not ruin the feeling of a miracle and pretend some practical Christmas codemagic has been worked.

  If you have any questions or suggestions – feel free to contact us. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

  May all your challenges be resolved as if with a swing of a magic wand in the oncoming year!

  Best regards, Aurigma X-Mas CodeMagic Team.